Of Swords and Sepulchers
by Do Wop
Summary: Ivan, Sheba, and Kraden accidentally put the whole world in peril while investigating the buried ruins of the Venus Tribe.
1. Prologue

Ivan ran through the streets of Lalivero, his panicked breath thin and hurried. The dust his feet kicked up hung momentarily in the dry air before falling to earth once more, leaving his footprints behind among the myriad imprints of those who had come before him.

It was difficult to see by the crescent moonlight, but Lalivero's streets were fairly clean so he avoided stumbling. This was a good thing, as stumbling was the last thing he wanted to happen right now. All he wanted to do was run, run, and keep running until he was as far from the thing behind him as he could get.

Unfortunately, he couldn't run any more. Even with the adrenaline pumping through his system, he was completely out of breath. He couldn't make his legs move any farther. He came to a panting stop, and supported himself on the pole of a nearby awning. He leaned against it, anticipating a blow to come from behind at any moment.

Much to his surprise it did not. After a moment he realized that what had been chasing him had abandoned the chase. He was alone in the street.

Relief soared through him. His pursuer had, for whatever reason, given up the chase. The feeling lasted for only a moment before a bucket of ice water was suddenly thrown on him as he realized why he was no longer being chased.

_Sheba._

She had been right behind him! He looked around desperately, trying to find some trace of her, but she was nowhere to be found. And his stomach plummeted as he realized why.

What was behind him had caught her.

He couldn't just leave her, could he? It was his fault she was there in the first place. And if he had been the one left behind, he would have wanted her to come back for him too.

He didn't want to go back. What was waiting for him back there scared him. It terrified him. He'd travelled the world and seen ancient civilizations, colossal dragons, and all four Elemental Lighthouses, but he'd never been frightened like this. He forced himself to put one foot in front of the other as he wandered back into the darkness he had just left. Sheba was in there somewhere, and with her was the creature he had just fled.

As he walked forward, his mind scrolled back through his memory. How had this happened? How did they get to this point? Pushing his fear away, he walked forward into the darkness, and he remembered.

He remembered...

It all began with Kraden.


	2. Chapter 1

**Three weeks ago**

Ivan considered his problem as he walked through Kalay's streets, heading back to the castle. Master Hammet had placed him in charge of organising a new caravan to Lalivero. Previously, this had been impossible; a caravan to Tolbi was difficult enough, thanks to the high tariffs Babi had imposed upon all imports, but taking it to Lalivero was made impossible by the fact that Babi charged tariffs once again on all goods moving through Gondowan gate to the southern continent.

However, Babi was now dead, and the driving force behind Tolbi's need for resources-the construction of Babi Lighthouse-was gone. Iodem, who had taken over rulership of Tolbi after Babi passed on, had promised Kalay caravans a special exemption from tariffs at the Suhalla Gate. This made trade with Lalivero a possibility, and the thought of expanding the trade routes still farther practically made Hammet drool.

Unfortunately, there were still issues to consider. For example, typically, shipments of silks and other commodities travel across the Karagol Sea by boat. This worked very well if you were sending your products to Tolbi itself. However, the caravan was in fact skipping Tolbi and heading straight for Lalivero. It therefore made more sense to travel by land. The passage to the north was too long, and was in any case still blocked by the landslides caused by Mount Aleph's explosion, but there was still Gondowan Cave. Although generally considered too monster-ridden for travelling use, it had quieted down significantly in the three years since the Elemental Lighthouses were lit, and Ivan felt confidant that himself and a small group of guards should be able to keep the caravan safe. On the other hand...

His train of thought was interrupted by a familiar voice up ahead. He was too far to make out words, but he recognized one of the voices that he heard from over by the castle gates. He smiled as he approached and began catching traces of the conversation.

"...personal friend...renowned scholar...back in my day..."

Ivan could barely restrain his laughter as he approached the two quarreling figures. The taller, one of the palace guard, was trying his best to calm down the shorter, who was belligerently demanding entrance.

"Kraden!" he yelled joyously as he walked up to the pair. The old man turned around just in time to find himself wrapped in a large bear hug. He made a surprised sound as the breath was momentarily forced out of him.

"Ivan!" he shouted in surprise as he was released. "By the gods, you've grown!"And so he had. When they had last parted, Kraden had stood a head taller than the young man. Now, a scarce three years later, the blonde youth towered over the old scholar. Admittedly, Kraden was by no means a tall man, but this rate of growth still seemed incredible.

"Well, of course I have! It's been three years, man! What have you been up to?" Ivan asked.

"Alchemy may be unlocked once more, but there still plenty for this old scholar to do! Right now I'm doing research on the ancient tribes who built the Lighthouses. In fact, that's why I've come to Kalay."

"Let's talk about it inside, Kraden." Ivan said, turning towards the palace gates. "It'll be much more comfortable there."

Ivan poured a goblet of wine for Kraden as they sat within the palace's great dining hall. Kraden took it happily and thanked him.

"Now, Ivan," Kraden began, "When we traveled across the world, we encountered evidence of the Great Tribes from before alchemy was sealed away, correct? The temple in Contigo showed that the Jupiter Tribe once lived there, and Lemuria and the Mars Tribe are both still alive and active. But outside of the lighthouse and Gaea Rock, nowhere did we see any evidence of a Venus Tribe."

"And now you've found some?" Ivan ventured, taking a sip from his own cup.

"I most certainly have!" Kraden said excitedly. "Last week Sheba sent word from Lalivero, informing me that some labourers had stumbled across an ancient tomb of unknown design. I suspect that it was built by the Venus Tribe!"

"And where do I fit into this?" Ivan asked. "Not that I'm not happy to see you again, of course."

"Ah, now we arrive at the crux of the matter!" Kraden was becoming more and more excited, and it was showing. He was beginning to gesticulate wildly as he spoke, causing the wine in his cup to spill onto the table. "The tomb is completely sealed shut! No matter what they try, the Laliverans can't get in! Sheba tells me it is held closed by powerful Earth psynergetic enchantments, far too powerful for her alone to break. This is what convinced me that it was an artifact of the Venus Tribe; who else would have-"

"-the command of Earth to do something like that. I see what you mean. And you want me to help you break it open?"

"Precisely!" Kraden shouted. "Jupiter psynergies are opposed to Venus, so you and Sheba working together should be able to open it."

Ivan considered. "It could work...and, by happy circumstance, I am leading a caravan down to Lalivero in less than a week. You could ride down with us, and while we're down there we could see what we can do about your tomb."

"Capital!" Kraden exclaimed, raising his cup. "It'll be just like old times, eh?"

"I sure hope so." Ivan said, raising his own. They clinked their cups together and continued drinking.


	3. Chapter 2

**One Day Ago**

Lalivero's squat stone buildings had never seemed so welcoming as when the caravan finally reached the desert town. After two weeks of travel, arriving at their destination was an enormous relief, a feeling which was amplified by the sight of the blonde girl waiting for Ivan and Kraden at the city outskirts. Ivan whispered a few instructions to his assistant, then hopped off the wagon to greet her.

"Welcome to Lalivero. I see you brought some friends this time." She said, grinning at the procession of wagons.

"Yeah, I guess I did." Ivan responded. "Hammet decided it was time to expand the trade routes, and Iodem-"

"Oh, shut up with all that. You know how much I hate merchant talk." He did; One night while sailing to Prox he had tried to explain to her how Master Hammet did his business, and wound up with nothing but blank stares and frustration. "Where is Kraden hiding himself?"

"Oh, he's in one of these wagons. No doubt boring some pretty young thing to death with tales of lost civilizations." As if on cue, Kraden tumbled clumsily out of one of the wagons and began walking towards them.

"Hello Ivan, Sheba." He said, brushing dirt off his pants. "I was just explaining the history of Lemuria to the young lady in that wagon when she suddenly shoved me out. She must have known you were over here." The two wind adepts simply rolled their eyes at each other. Kraden was a genius scholar, but his social skills were somewhat less developed.

"Welcome back to Lalivero, Kraden." Sheba began. "I'm sure you're eager to get to the tomb, so why don't we head down there now?"

"Well, certainly!" Kraden declared. "I can't wait to see what's inside. If we're lucky there could even be a history of the people! Many leaders of ancient tribes were buried with a recorded history so that they could continue teaching..." Ivan tuned Kraden out as he followed Sheba across the dunes, away from the town.

"So, how far is it?" he asked quietly.

"Not far at all." Sheba replied. "We'd have found it years ago if it hadn't been buried beneath almost a meter of sand."

"That's a lot of sand. How did you find it?"

"The dunes shifted just enough for a protrusion on the top to poke out. Someone tripped over it. Writes itself from there."

They were coming up on it now. It was composed of solid stone, something that would have been impossible were it not constructed by a clan of earth adepts. The rectangular shape was massive when you stood beneath it. The stone doors were half again as tall as Ivan. Sitting atop it was a tall obelisk, no doubt what the Laliveren had tripped over.

The stone doors were sealed tightly, and covered in a circular pattern of runes. Ivan walked up to it and pressed his hand against it. It was certainly an imposing structure. Something about the arrangement of runes didn't sit well with him. He turned to Kraden.

"Can you make anything of these runes?" he asked. Kraden came forward and inspected them carefully.

"I'm afraid not." the elderly scholar answered. "It looks like the language found inside the Lighthouses, but these are eroded far past the point of illegibility."

"All right, then let me have a go at getting this thing open." Ivan said, taking a step backwards and wiping off his hands. He extended his hands, and reached out with his psynergy. Indeed, he could feel the yellow bands of power circling the tomb, preventing it from opening. He prodded it with his own power, and felt the bands quiver and contract under his gentle pressure. Throwing caution to the wind, he siezed the bands with his purple psynergy and tried to pull them asunder. Immediately, they snapped back iron-hard to their original state, sending his power wheeling away. Ivan bent double, lutching his chest in pain, as the backlash washed over him.

Sheba called out his name and rushed to his side, but he gently brushed her off. "I'm fine. You were right. That thing is sealed up tighter than Hammet's treasury. I'm actually starting to have second thoughts; Whatever's in there, somebody certainly didn't want anyone getting at it." Before Kraden could voice any objections, Ivan hushed him with a gesture. "Don't worry, Kraden, I'm still in. So, Sheba, do you want to steer or shall I?"

"I've been working on these things for a few days now. Give me some power to work with and I should have these doors open in no time." Sheba replied, pulling her gloves off and getting ready to get to work.

Ivan clasped her hand in his own and began feeding psynergy into her. She took it and used it as her own, reaching out towards the sealing enchantment once more. Instead of seizing it as Ivan had, however, she directed all the power at her disposal at one corner of the shape formed by the overlapping bands. She struck it hard, stabbing at it with their combined psynergy like a spear. The bands wavered and strengthened, trying to resist her assault, but soon the whole construct began to collapse. Within moments, they had faded, leaving behind no sign of their passing.

"Good work." Ivan said. Then he raised his hands towards the thick stone doors and hit it with a barrage of lightning bolts. The doors crumbled and fell to the ground, the fragments red-hot from the assault.

It was pitch black inside, so Ivan and Sheba used their psynergy to create a small light in their hands. Beyond the entrance, there was only a wide staircase leading down into the earth. It went deep, so deep that by the time they reached the bottom they could no longer see the top.

Once they reached the bottom, they found themselves in a octagonal stone chamber. Four pillars rose up from the ground to support the ceiling. All around the room, smashed stone tablets littered the ground. Kraden bent over the fragments sadly.

"I knew I shouldn't have expected much," Kraden said quietly, "But I thought maybe we'd find a tablet or two. Some clue to who they were, where they went...but there's nothing here."

"Are you sure you can't salvage anything?" Sheba asked sympathetically, leaning over him. Ivan walked past them and raised his light up.

"No, there's nothing to be had here. It will take years to piece even a fraction of one of these together, and even then we'll never know for certain if we had it right. It would probably have been-"

"Kraden," Ivan interrupted, "You might want to have a look at this."

As Ivan raised the light higher and higher, more and more of the figure sculpted into the opposite wall came into view. There, carved in relief, was an enormous mass of serpents. The stone snakes crossed over and looped around each other that it was impossible to determine which head went with which tail. They had only one thing in common: Each snake was biting the tail of another.

Kraden was awestruck. "By the Gods," he yelled, "Look at that! It must be nearly twice as tall as I am! And the complexity of the piece is astonishing." Unable to resist, Kraden ran up to the wall and began lightly rubbing his hands over the only snake low enough to easily touch. Suddenly, he stopped moving his hands and adopted a puzzled expression. "Hmm. This stone seems out of place..." he carefully slid the loose stone into the more suitable position.

Kraden fell back in surprise as the snake began moving. Its fangs released from the snake it had bitten down on, and slithered along the sculpture into a different position. One by one, all twelve snakes released their prey and moved into a different configuration, creating a gap in the middle. A split in the wall appeared along that gap, and like a pair of enormous doors, the two sides swung out towards them.They came to rest against the support pillars, leaving a large gap in between. Out of that gap stepped a young man.

"Well, it's about time somebody showed up." He said.


	4. Chapter 3

Ivan's hand was instantly to his sword.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" he demanded.

"Oh, put that away," the stranger said dismissively. "I've no intention to harm you. I am Prince Donn of the Venus Clan."

"A surviving member? Fascinating!" Kraden exclaimed, stumbling between his two younger companions to get a better look. "How is it that you are still alive?"

"A great calamity came upon my people." The prince said sadly. "My father, the king, knew that it would destroy our civilization utterly, leaving behind only our Lighthouse as proof we ever existed. For this reason, he used all of our people's power to seal me away, so that at least some of our history would live on. Now, please put away your blade. You can see that I am unarmed." Seeing that the boy wore no sword, Ivan slid his own back into its sheath.

"An honor to meet you, sir!" Kraden exclaimed breathlessly. "I am Kraden, a lowly scholar, and these are my friends, Ivan and Sheba."

"The honor is mine, honorable sage. I hope I will be able to aid you in your research."

"Do you know what was written on these tablets?" Kraden asked hopefully. "When we arrived they were already smashed, and I would really like to read them."

"Unfortunately, I don't." the prince answered, looking around the room. "But I do know where you might be able to find more."

-------------------------------------------------

It was rapidly growing dark as they walked to the second tomb. Donn had lead them over the sand dunes, with no indication that he knew any better where they were going.

"Do you buy his story?" Ivan asked Sheba quietly as the walked behind Donn and Kraden, who were cahtting merrily.

"I'm not sure." Sheba replied. " I can't see anything wrong with it, but it seems a little..."

"Off." Ivan agreed. "I'm not sure I trust our new friend yet."

Any further discussion was cut off by Donn's announcement that they had arrived.

"Here's where we dig." He declared, pointing to the sand in front of them.

"No need for that," Sheba declared, stepping past him. "I'll clear out the sand." No sooner had she spoken than the wind abruptly picked up. She reached out with her psynergy and molded the air currents, bent them to her will, to produce what she wanted: a tornado. The cyclone formed and began pulling sand from the ground and hurling it to the side. She ran the tornado over the area a few times, until she could see the tomb beneath, and then dispelled it with a gesture. The path now clear, they began their descent to the door of the tomb itself.

Surprisingly enough, there was no protective enchantment holding this one shut. Donn simply walked forward and pushed the doors open. The design of the tomb was different, too. Instead of a long staircase leading into the depths of the earth, there was a short corridor that opened up into a chamber similar to the one they had found Donn in. The intact tablets which circled the room captivated Kraden's interest, but it was what sat within the circle that interested Ivan. In the middle of the floor, on a slightly raised pedestal, a sword was stuck into the ground.

As Kraden began eagerly inspecting the tablets, Ivan walked over the the sword and inspected it. The edge was still sharp, as Ivan discovered when he cut his finger on it, and the blade was ebony black. The stone floor seemed to have molded to it perfectly; there didn't wasn't any hole around it. He gave it a tug, but it refused to come out of the ground.

"Ivan, come over here and have a look at this!" Kraden exclaimed from where he was crouching. Ivan left the sword and joined Kraden and Sheba by one of the stone tablets. Kraden moved his hands along the writing as he translated the ancient script.

"'At the end of the final age," Kraden read carefully, "as alchemy's power grew stronger over us, like the other nations of the world we built a Great Lighthouse to contain its power. We knew that sealing the power of Venus away would leave us bereft of our command over the sand and soil, but it had to be done, for the power wielded by the world's alchemists were too great. But even as the final brick was laid, danger stirred within the land.

"'One man, determined to hold on to the power he felt was his by birthright, forged a great, undefeatable blade. Contained within it was all the power he could muster, and it is said he amplified and trapped the power with the blood of a newborn. When it was complete, it was as black as night, and granted whoever wielded it unimaginable power. He named it Bloodbane, and with it in hand, he struck terror throughout the kingdom. Wherever he went, he left behind nothing but corpses. At last, the King was forced to take action.

"'No number of soldiers or alchemists could stop him, so the King was forced to make a sacrifice. He drew together the combined power of the whole kingdom to seal away the man and his enchanted blade. He sent each to a seperate tomb and buried them. Together they could have escaped easily, but seperate and with the power of Alchemy sealed away, they would remain apart forever.

"'But all Alchemy comes with a price. In exchange for this use of power, the earth reached up beneath their feet and swallowed the entire nation, leaving nothing behind but their great Lighthouse. And as the earth rose up around him, consuming his great castle, the King wept, for he had been forced to kill all those in his charge in order to stop his only son.'"

A sudden chill came over all three. They slowly turned to face Donn, who was standing by the black sword.

"Honestly, what did you expect?" he asked as he pulled the blade out of its pedestal. As the blade pulled out, a blinding flash forced them to cover their eyes.

When they looked again, Donn had the blade in one hand, and was looking at them with utter contempt.

"I don't think I've ever met a more gullible group of fools." He said, all pretense of manners gone. "I'd have killed you when you first released me if my connection to the earth wasn't sealed away with Bloodbane. I would never have been able to dig it up. But this beauty...she called to me. Across the sands and under the earth, she called to me. Led me to her. And now I have no need for you idiots any more." With that, he raised his sword towards them, and the stone under Kraden opened beneath him. He didn't even have time to scream before he fell into the hole, which contracted around him. Both Ivan and Sheba jumped back in horror as the terrible sound of snapping bones began emerging from where he had stood, and finally the hole sealed itself completely, leaving no sign Kraden had ever been there.

"I finally shut the old man up." Donn said gloatingly. "He prattled on so much, I don't know how you stood him."

"You bastard!" Sheba cried, lunging at him. Lightning spit from her hands, but he caught the bolts on his sword, which absorbed them. He casually batted her out of the air with his free arm, sending her crashing into Ivan.

"Oh, please! You'll have to do a lot better than that! It took the power of an entire nation to lock me away before. You two are beneath my notice." He gestured once more with the sword, but this time at the ground between him and them. It shifted and moved, but instead of caving in, it began reaching out. An amorphous shape began pulling itself out of the ground. As it rose , it began taking on a vague shape; hints of arms, legs and a squat head began appearing, but it was huge and monstrous in appearance. "See to them." Donn commanded it. "I have things to attend to."

The creature of stone lurched forward, reaching for them. Ivan drew his sword and put himself between Sheba and the incoming monstrosity. It threw itself forward with sudden speed, but he sidestepped and brought his blade crashing down upon it. The creature was formed of stone, no ordinary blade could have cut it, but his sword was no ordinary blade. He wielded the Kikuichimonji, the last blade forged by the great smith Asura before he died. It could cut through a sheet of iron with ease. Mere stone positively melted befores its edge.

Unfortunately, it did him no good. The Kikuichimonji did cut through its stone limbs, but if it felt any pain it gave no sign. A new arm grew out from the stub his sword had left behind and reached for him. He stumbled backward, and brought the sword up to sever the new limb, but once again it started regrowing almost immediately. The creature was not solid rock, but somehow strangely fluid. Ivan stepped backwards, preparing for another attack.

"Ivan, get down!" Sheba yelled at him, and he complied, ducking low. A blinding burst of lightning shot over his head, impacting against the creature's 'chest'. The creature of stone slid back a few steps but started coming after them once more right away, its stone skin glowing red-hot from the heat.

Ivan felt a jolt of fear as the thing reached for him once more. This thing didn't feel pain, and everything they did to it only slowed it down. He whirled his sword around once more severing another limb, but it rapidly regrew and the other reached for him. He sliced through the other, too, but still the shambling monstrosity pressed forward. He fell backwards, keeping it at bay with his blade.

"Get back!" he shouted over his shoulder as he severed another limb. "Get under the open sky!" Sheba run, and Ivan blasted the creature with a great gust of wind. It was sent flying backwards, landing by Donn's feet. Ivan turned and ran as the creature pulled itself back up and began coming after him, faster than ever.

He joined Sheba where she stood outside the tomb and seized her hand. Understanding, she flowed power from her into him, and he put it to good use. Raising his hand to the sky, he summoned up stormclouds, and soon the sky over the tomb was blotted out by a dark mass of cloud, crackling with sheet lightening. And when the creature pulled itself out of the tomb, he brought it crashing down.

A blinding mass of plasma came searing down upon it. Ivan and Sheba were both forced to shield their eyes as it impacted with the creature of stone. The boom of thunder that followed was deafening and nearly knocked them off their feet.

When the light cleared, and the spots stopped dancing in front of their eyes, they took a look at where the thing had been standing. It was gone. No trace of it remained. The heat had fused all the surrounding sand into glass. But no sooner had Ivan begun breathing a sigh of relief than the glass began shifting. From underneath it, the creature was beginning to reform itself from the sand.

Fear gripped Ivan as it started pulling itself out of the sand. _We can't beat this thing, _he thought as he turned and began running, Sheba only a few steps behind him.


	5. Chapter 4

**Present Time**

Ivan ran back through the streets, retracing his footsteps. Sheba was back here somewhere, and he needed to find her before it was too late.

He stopped dead in the middle of an intersection as he realized that not only did he not know which way they had gone, he didn't know which way _he_ had come from. He wouldn't do Sheba any good if he ran off in the wrong direction.

He closed his eyes and concentrated. The creature was formed with psynergy. A lot of psynergy. It must have left a trail. He reached out with his own power and found it. Left. He opened his eyes and resumed running in that direction.

And he saw them, a few blocks down. Sheba was on the ground, fighting vainly to get to her feet. The thing towered over her prone form, reaching down and taking her by the throat. He raised her into the air as she kicked futilely and clawed at the misshapen hand gripping her airway.

"Let go of her!" Ivan yelled as he ran forward, but the creature paid him no mind. Ivan reached out to the air in front of him, and compressed it, forming it into three blades, which he sent spinning at the monster's arm. The bursts of air cut through the arm, which crumbled and fell to the ground. Sheba fell with them, her throat now free.

Ivan interposed himself between them, lashing out left and then right with the Kikuichimonji. His first blow took off the arm that was coming about to cave in his skull, and the second sliced clean through both the creature's legs. Astonishingly, the thing fell, landing with a heavy _thud_. It wasn't until it struck the ground that it began regrowing its severed limbs.

_The ground,_ Ivan thought suddenly, staring at the regenerating mass, _it needs to be touching the ground to grow parts of itself back._ Suddenly he knew how to beat it.

"Sheba!" He called out as he leaped backwards to her side, "Make a whirlwind! I need as much sand in the air as possible!"Sheba was still coughing, but managed to hold out a hand and summon up a wind. A whirlwind of sand appeared around where the beast was pulling itself upright once more. Within minute there was so much grit in the air that nothing could be seen.

Then it was Ivan's turn. He reached up into the sky once more and brought the lightning down. Bolts after bolt crashed into the cloud of sand, until eventually he stopped to see his handiwork. The sand in the air had fused in the intense heat, creating a huge glass prison at the center of which was the elemental creature. Most of its body had become part of the prison, but there was a small core trapped at the center that was pushing against the imprisoning structure, gradually breaking through. In a few minutes it would push its way out and reform.

Fortunately, Ivan had no intention of giving it that chance. He grabbed Sheba's hand and fed her power. "Now! While the glass keeps it from regenerating, send it into the air!" Sheba was in pain, and short of strength, but with his power bolstering hers she managed to create a strong enough updraft to lift the glass structure into the air. With that accomplished, the fight was all but over. As soon as the small core broke free of the glass structure, Ivan struck it with a lightning bolt before it could touch the ground. It shattered, and when the remnents landed it did not grow a new body.

Suddenly exhausted, Ivan and Sheba both collapsed on the ground. Their breath was heavy and laboured.

"We have to stop him." Sheba said. Ivan nodded in agreement, but was forced to voice his doubts.

"How? How can we stop him? He's just far too powerful with that sword. He already killed Kraden, and if we try to fight him we'll be next. We barely beat one of his creatures-for all we know, he could summon up a hundred of them with one wave of his sword!"

"We've got one chance." Sheba said, biting her lip in that way which meant she was thinking. "All his power comes from the sword. If we take it away from him..." She trailed off, staring across the street.

"What do you have in mind?" Ivan asked.

"The sword was obviously kept in place by powerful enchantments. Otherwise, any idiot could come along and take it. They must have been hidden really carefully if I didn't see them, but when Donn took the sword I felt the edge of them, and it didn't feel like the power was released. It felt more like..." he trailed off again, searching for a way to describe the feeling.

"Like the click of a key in a lock." Ivan supplied. He'd felt it too; not a breaking, nor a removing, but more the shifting of a few components into a different alignment.

"Exactly! I think the enchantments are still there. Maybe, if we go back to the tomb, we can use them to seal the sword's power up again."

Ivan wasn't so sure. "That's more maybes and 'I think's than I'm comfortable with."

"It's the only chance we've got, and if this doesn't work, we're dead either way. If Donn wasn't crazy before they sealed him up underground, he certainly is now. I think he's going to destroy everything."

She was right. If there was a chance of stopping Donn, it lay inside that tomb. Ivan didn't want to go back into the heart of Donn's power, but there was no choice.

"All right," he said as he pulled himself to his feet, "let's do it."


	6. Chapter 6

The tomb was eerie.

When they had entered for the first time, there was still a little sun in the sky, and the orange light had cast long shadows, making the tomb's interior seem hostile and uninviting. The darkness of night had not improved it at all, especially now that they knew what had been waiting inside.

Ivan went first, the Kikuichimonji held at the ready. He knew full well that it would do him little good if Donn was still inside, but it still gave him a bit of confidence. Sheba walked behind him, her sharp eyes sweeping the darkness, keeping an eye on the corridor ahead.

Fortunately, when they entered the Sword Chamber, Donn was nowhere to be found. It seemed that Donn was off doing something. Perhaps he was busy raising up an army of those things. Ivan shuddered at the thought.

Sheba knelt over the spot where the sword had been, and pressed one hand against the floor. After a few moments she stood up and faced him.

"It's just like I thought," she said, "the binding enchantments are still there. We can use them to seal his sword up again. But there's some bad news, too: we'd need to actually get the sword in here in order to do it."

"Well, that shouldn't be too much of a problem," a voice called out from behind Ivan. He whirled and saw that Donn was standing in the doorway, Bloodbane in hand. Ivan froze as the black blade shimmered quietly in the moonlight.

"I'm impressed that you managed to survive my Elemental, but I'm extremely disappointed in you for coming back here. Really, I'm not sure how you could have been any more predictable," Donn said, taking a few steps forward so that he was standing in the room proper. "And now I've got you cornered."

"Sheba, get ready," Ivan said, settling low and bringing his sword up to a guard position. He had to hope that she understood his meaning; if he'd spoken it aloud, Donn would have heard, and then there'd be no hope at all of this working.

"Oh, are you going to fight me? Come on, boy, it'll be amusing."

"Now, Sheba!" Ivan shouted, leaping forward and bringing the Kikuichimonji up in a great slash. For a moment he hung in midair, and it seemed Sheba had not understood. But them he felt a great gust of wind across his back, and he was rocketing towards Donn.

Propelled by the force of Sheba's wind, Ivan flew into Donn, completing his slash. Donn parried easily, and Ivan could feel the shock of the colliding swords run up his arm. Donn seemed completely unaffected. Ivan landed on his feet and pressed the attack, slashing at his opponent three times more. Donn casually intercepted each blow, sending shock after shock into Ivan's body.

Donn lashed out cruelly with his foot, sending Ivan crumpled to the floor in pain. Donn brought his black sword down in a stabbing motion, and would have put it right through his head if Ivan had not managed to roll out of the way.

Donn was blown backwards by a sudden powerful gust of wind. He fell backwards a few steps before finally steadying himself. He then began advancing slowly on Sheba, marching slowly but steadily headlong into the gale. Sheba doubled and redoubled the power, until Ivan was literally holding on to the stonework to keep from being sent flying, but Donn took no notice of it.  
He was a rock, unmovable, and the winds broke on him with no effect, save perhaps slowing him a little.

He backhanded Sheba across the face, sending her sprawling onto the stone with a cry. Ivan pulled himself to his feet and launched himself at Donn's back. Donn elbowed him in the gut without even turning around, and Ivan fell once more. Donn's strength was inhuman.

Gasping for breath, Sheba fired a barrage of small lightning bolts, but they were absorbed into Bloodbane's black surface.

"You have to be the absolute slowest group of people I've ever seen," Donn said in disgust. "Didn't you figure out that that wasn't going to work after the _first_ time you tried it?"

He strode forward and kicked Sheba in the ribs. Ivan could hear the _snap_ of breaking bones as her left side collapsed. She skidded several feet across the floor. "Time to end this," Donn said, advancing slowly on her. Ivan pulled himself off the ground and lunged at him again. Donn whirled and met Ivan's blade with his own.

Ivan fought like a madman, trying desperately to break through the prince's defenses, but it was to no avail. Donn deflected a blow intended for his face, guarded against a blow against his legs, and when the next blow came, instead of simply deflecting the cut he set his teeth and sheared clean through the Kikuichimonji's blade. The metal blade fell to the ground in several pieces, leaving Ivan holding a useless handle.

"Idiot," Donn said, giving Ivan a bone-crushing kick to the ribs, "you can't beat this blade! Now you stay down. I'll get to you in a moment." He turned back to Sheba, who was busily crawling away at a painfully slow pace. She was pulling herself along the ground, inch by inch, trying futily to escape. When she felt Donn's shadow fall over her, she stopped crawling and lay there, weeping and holding her ruined side.

"Pathetic," Donn said, and then he took Bloodbane in two hands and drove it through her body into the floor.

There was a brilliant flash of light, and something just at the edge of perception _shifted_.

When the light faded, Donn looked around, confused. Then he tried to pull his sword out of Sheba's body. It didn't move. Alarmed, he stared at it and pulled again and again. Still it didn't budge, and it suddenly released a small burst of psynergetic energy, forcing him to pull his hand away.

Realization, and then rage, dawned over his face. "Bitch!" he shrieked, kicking her body again and again, "Bloody stupid godsdamn bitch! Now I've got to undo those enchantments all over again!"

_The sword_, Ivan realized. Donn drove it through her body, into the ground beneath, right into where the sword had been held. When the sword was inserted in that ground, the enchantments took hold again, and the sword was sealed. That was why Sheba had been trying to hard to make it those last few inches before he finished her off.

As Donn continued to abuse her body, Ivan slowly rose to his feet. Sheba had died giving him a chance at victory, and he was not going to waste it. If he didn't defeat Donn right now, he'd unlock the seal again and then there was no hope for the world. Nothing could stand against that sword. Maybe during the Golden Age of Alchemy, when there were whole armies of adepts to stand against him. Maybe not even then. But certainly not now, with alchemy only newly unleashed upon the world, and with only a handful of adepts to oppose him.

Ivan felt his ribcage with his hands. They were bruised, and they hurt, but they didn't seem broken. He spit out a mouthful of blood and wiped his chin with the back of his hand.

"Get away from her!" he shouted, pointing at Donn, who turned to face him. "I'm not through with you yet. Let's see how well you fight without that sword, you son of a bitch."


	7. Chapter 7

"You want to fight me?" Donn asked, amused. "I may not have Bloodbane any more, but my connection with the earth has been restored, and I was one of the foremost geomancers of my time. I'll still crush you like a bug."

Ivan said nothing in response, but formed three blades of compressed air and sent them spinning towards Donn, who with a motion raised a shield of earth. The blades impacted on it's surface, sending clods of dirt flying.

"Fine," Donn said, "have it your way."

With a shout, Donn struck the earth with both hands, and a ripple passed through the ground between them. Ivan leaped to the right, sending small bursts of air through his feet to propel him out of the way. The ground he had stood on flew upwards. Donn gestured again, and part of the tomb's ceiling fell above Ivan. Ivan pushed off, boosting himself with another burst of air, and then pushed off the side of a boulder that Donn had raised in his path. He leapt off the top of a stone spire intended to impale him, pushed off several thrown boulders, and then he was sailing through the air towards Donn with nothing in between them.

Donn clenched his fists and heaved upwards, as though pulling on something. An enormous boulder pulled itself out of the ground and interposed itself between him and Ivan. With a grunt, he thrust his fists forward, sending the boulder hurtling toward Ivan's falling form.

IVan clapped his hands together, inhaled deeply, and then breathed out, sending a spear of compressed air down into the incoming boulder. He blew a small hole in the middle, and then expanded it, breaking the boulder apart into a dozen pieces. He fell down through the gap at the center, flying straight into a surprised Donn.

As he fell down, Ivan lashed out with the heel of his hand, forcing Donn to raise one arm to block it. Ivan landed, then kicked out with his right foot, catching Donn on the ankle. Donn staggered, suddenly off balance, as Ivan completed the turn and brought both hands up, sending Donn flying off his feet with a great gust of wind. As Donn was suspended in the air, Ivan brought both hands back to his side, and then thrust them out again, this time charged with lightning. He sent two bolts sailing through the air towards Donn's airborne form.

Donn moved his arms in an upward motion, and a sheet of rock pulled itself out of the ground, intercepting the lightning bolts. It exploded underneath the enormous power, and the force sent Donn flying into a wall. He impacted with a thud and fell to the ground. He pulled himself back up to a sitting position, wiping the blood from his chin with the back of his hand.

"Not bad," he conceded with a grin. "Not bad at all. This should be fun after all."

"I'm going to kill you," Ivan informed him.

"You're going to try," Donn replied.

Ivan leapt forward once more, propelled by a burst of air, but Donn threw out one fist and a fist of stone burst forth from the wall behind him, swinging towards Ivan. Ivan managed to roll, catching it on his shoulder, but it still sent him skidding across the stone floor. He pulled himself to his feet, and managed to jump out of the way just before a pair of stone spears impacted right where his head had been.

Ivan pressed the attack, moving forwards while turning about, deflecting attacks from all sides. The smaller rocks he sent spinning away with blasts of air. The larger ones he vaporized with bolts of lightning. Donn continued to hurl small rocks at him, trying to break through his defense.

Donn reached down and pulled another huge rock out of the ground, and sent it flying at Ivan. This time, Ivan set his feet and blasted it with a powerful gale, trying to send it back at Donn. For a moment, the stone hovered, going neither one way nor the other, pushed on one side by Donn's psynergetic might and on the other by Ivan's hurricane-force winds.

In the end, Donn won.

The enormous rock slammed violently into Ivan, sending him flying backwards. He hit the wall with a sickening _crunch_, and then fell to the ground as limp as a rag doll. He felt his ribs with his hands once more. _Alright,_ now _they're broken_. He struggled to his feet, trying hard to ignore the searing pain in his side, to get up and fight regardless, but he knew it was futile. Perhaps outside, where Ivan had room to maneuver and could unleash the full fury of the sky, he could defeat Donn, but not here. Not in these close quarters, and surrounded by Donn's element of choice.

"Give it up, little man!" Donn shouted, sending two boulders at him. Ivan deflected one with a blast of air, but the other hit him across the face, sending him down to the ground again. "You put up a better fight than I expected, but you never really stood a chance."

Donn gestured as he stepped forward, and two stone arms grew out of the ground on either side of Ivan, grabbing him by his throat and hoisting him up into a standing position. Ivan clawed at the hands, but their grip was unbreakable.

"Any last words?" Donn asked, leaning forward over Ivan's squirming body.

"Yeah, I've got one," Ivan said, glaring at his captor. "_Burn._"

Ivan's hands darted out and grabbed Donn's wrists, his palms crackling with lightning. Donn screamed and pulled away as the electricity coursed through him, but Ivan held on with all of his strength. The hands at his throat crumbled as Donn's concentration faded into the brilliant white light of lightning. Ivan bore down on him, not releasing his hands until Donn's skin was scorched and blackened.

Ivan threw Donn's smoking husk to the ground, wiping off his hands in disgust. He staggered over to where the sword was sticking out of Sheba's body, and sat down beside her. His ribs were giving him trouble, and it felt like his nose was broken, but he would survive. He was the only one. He'd have to stagger back to town and tell everyone what had happened. Go back to Angara and tell Isaac and Garet and the others what had happened. He was not looking forward to it.

He didn't think they would be able to get Sheba's body off the blade without removing it, and he would not allow anyone to pull that thing out. It was just too dangerous. Kraden didn't _have_ a body anymore, or least not one likely to be in any recognizable shape. Neither would get a proper burial. This 'Tomb' would finally fulfill its function, and be their final resting place.

"I'm sorry, Sheba," Ivan said as tears fell down his face, "I'm really sorry."


End file.
